SUGAR FIELDS LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20598, 24 June 1930, Page 6

SUGAR FIELDS LABOUR.

FERMENT IN QUEENSLAND.

ANTI-ITALIAN FEELING, PERIL OF OPEN CONFLICT. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY, Juno 12. All the ingredients for a first-class flare up between Britons and Italians are in evidence in North Queensland. Feeling is running very high over the question of labour on the sugar fields, and there is said to be danger of open conflict when the time arrives for the engagement of mill labour and labour for the cutting of the cane. The trouble appears to have started some weeks ago with the formation of the British Protection League, whose object was to protect the interests of British subjects, particularly the great number of unemployed, who, it was claimed l , had been ousted by Italians. And there was some justification for the claim, too, for in one area last year the Italians wero given an absolute monopoly of work. A great deal of indignation and bitter feeling against aliens ensued. There wero many conflicts between the men of the two and then the trouble seemed !to die down. Now the danger is more real than ever, and the recent removal of the Coat-of-Arms from the office of the Italian Vice-Consul was only one indication that feeling was running high. All efforts to discover who was responsible for the so-called " insult to the Italian nation" have been in vain, but the Italian Consul took the matter so seriously that special' investigators were sent to Innisfail by the police department in Brisbane. These officers have not met with much success in their inquiries. They find themselves up against a double obstacle. Fascists and Anti-Fascists. British residents are not sympathetic to the Italian cause and have refused to assist, and then, again, the Italians are divided. Some are Fascist and some are anti-Fascist, and the Fascists say that the anti-Fascists may have been responsible for the removal of the arms. The Consul, after inquiries on the spot, has exonerated the anti-Fascists, which suggests that he accuses Britons. This charge, naturally, is particularly by the returned soldiers of the district. So many factions are concerned that tlfa position will be serious if trouble should occur. The latest information is that the Italians have also formed an association with the object of protecting their interests. The Italians say that they are determined to get back all the positions they held last year. To do this they will have to fight the many forces that are opposed to them, and these are of considerable strength. When it appeared likely, that British subjects would secure work, the unemployed of Queensland concentrated in the North, and are now awaiting developments. This has complicated matters, and when it seemed likely that British workers would receive preference 600 Italians packed into a hall at Innisfail and entered a vigorous protest. Highly SjJxcited Audience. The various speeches worked the audience up to a high state of excitement, but as there was a large number of police present the proceedings were orderly. The meeting decided to ask the Coinonwealth and State Governments to see that Italians who had been permitted to settle in Australia should have tho same right as British subjects when , farmers gave contracts to cut cane, and to ask the Australian Workers' Union to see that Italian members had the same rights 33 British workers. ' One speaker said that Italians had al« ready been conqilered in the South Johnstone field, where 75 per cent, of the men employed wero British. Italians in the north of Queensland were being overcome by an avalanche of British preference. He claimed that the British Preference League did not represent Australian public opinion, but only the opinion of a few Australians who were "dogs in the manger." Sugar interests express regret that so much attention should be focussed on the Northern fields at a time when the question of a renewal of the sugar embargo is under discussion and the Southern States are ringing with a cry for cheaper sugar, which, it is stated, will be impossible if the embargo is not removed. The Preference League, on the other hand, contends that if the foreigners are allowed to retain tho hold they already have there will be no need for the embargo, the object of which is to protect the Whito Australia policy.